posted on Sep, 17 2006 @ 11:16 AM
This was something I received from my old friend Robert Donnan. Bob served in Vietnam with the "Fighting 15th" Field Artillery.
The September/October issue of THE VETERAN just arrived (it's the publication of Vietnam Veterans of America) and it has an interesting article
titled "The Chinese Military in Vietnam." In summary, the article tells how the Chinese supplied the North Vietnamese with everything from manpower
(30,000 to 40,000 troops at various points) to artillery, small arms, jet fighters and tanks. Here's an excerpt:
"But after (US) invasions of Cambodia and Laos, supply deliveries hit a new peak in 1971, with almost 8,000 guns, mortars, rocket artillery
launchers, 143,000 small arms, and 80 tanks. Armor deliveries remained substantial, peaking at 220 tanks in 1972 then falling off. Given that Hanoi
simultaneously received many aircraft and almost all its air defense missile and radar systems from the Soviet Union, the combination was potent."
(see link to the earlier Soviet article below)
www.vva.org...
This current article points out that us 'fighting with one hand tied behind our backs' was partly due to LBJ not wanting to anger the Chinese enough
to bring in more of their troops, which probably would have happened if we had fought more aggressively and invaded North Vietnam.
It's hard to believe that just 20 years after my father helped defend China from the Japanese in WW2, that the Chinese were fighting against us in
Vietnam. How quickly things change in world politics!